System, method and computer program product for performing a data protection operation

1. A computer-implemented method for performing a data protection operation, the method comprising: receiving at a controller a write instruction that is associated with a writable entity; wherein the write instruction comprises: a writable entity identifier; and data protection metadata indicative of a relevancy of at least one data protection operation to be applied in relation to the write instruction; and participating, by the controller, in a write operation, the write operation comprising writing an information entity to the writable entity specified by the writable entity identifier; determining whether the at least one data protection operation is relevant to either or both of: the write instruction; and at least one other write instruction; and participating, by the controller, in an execution of the at least one data protection operation in response to determining the at least one data protection operation is relevant to either or both of the write instruction and the at least one other write instruction; and wherein the at least one data protection operation comprises a separate action distinct from the write operation.

2. The method according to claim 1 wherein the write instruction further comprises relevancy metadata, the relevancy metadata being indicative of a relevancy of the data protection metadata to the at least one other write instruction; and wherein the at least one other write instruction is associated with the writable entity.

3. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the data protection metadata comprises a plurality of bits, each bit indicating whether to apply one of the at least one data protection operation to the write instruction or the at least one other write instruction; and wherein determining whether the at least one data protection operation is relevant to the write instruction comprises determining a value of each of the plurality of bits.

4. The method according to claim 3 , wherein each bit of the data protection metadata is indicative of a relevancy of a particular type of data protection operation selected out of a group consisting of: change recording; in-order asynchronous remote copying; out-of-order asynchronous remote copying; synchronous remote copying; and continuous data protection.

5. The method according to claim 4 , wherein the data protection metadata comprises a bitmap.

6. The method according to claim 3 , wherein determining whether the at least one data protection operation is relevant to the at least one other write instruction comprises: evaluating a relevancy metadata field of the write instruction; in response to determining the relevancy metadata field indicates some or all of the data protection operations are relevant to the other write instruction(s), determining which of the other write instruction(s) relate to the writable entity; and participating in the data protection operation(s) relevant to the other write instruction(s) that relate to the writable entity; and wherein the at least one other write instruction lacks data protection metadata.

7. The method according to claim 1 wherein the writable entity is either an application object or a memory space.

8. The method according to claim 1 wherein the write instruction further comprises a default indication field indicative of applicability of a default data protection operation relevant to other write instructions lacking data protection metadata.

9. A computer program product comprising a non-transitory computer usable medium including a computer readable program, wherein the computer readable program when executed on a computer causes the computer to: receive a write instruction that is associated with a writable entity; participate in a write operation specified by the write instruction; and in response to determining one or more data protection operations are relevant to the write operation, participate in an execution of the one or more data protection operations; wherein the write instruction comprises: a writable entity identifier; and data protection metadata indicative of a relevancy of each of the one or more data protection operations in relation to the write instruction; and wherein determining whether the one or more data protection operations are relevant to the write operation is based on the data protection metadata.

10. The computer program product according to claim 9 wherein the write instruction comprises relevancy metadata indicative of a relevancy of the data protection metadata to at least one other write instruction that is associated with the writable entity.

11. The computer program product according to claim 9 , wherein the write instruction further comprises a default indication field indicative of applicability of a default data protection operation relevant to other write instructions lacking data protection metadata.

12. The computer program product according to claim 9 wherein the data protection metadata is indicative of a relevancy of at least one copy service operation.

13. The computer program product according to claim 9 , wherein the data protection metadata is indicative of a relevancy of at least one data protection operation selected out of a group consisting of: continuous data protection; change recording; in-order asynchronous remote copying; out-of-order asynchronous remote copying; and synchronous remote copying.

14. The computer program product according to claim 9 , wherein the data protection metadata comprises a bitmap; wherein different bits of the bitmap are indicative of a relevancy of data protection operations of different types selected out of a group consisting of: continuous data protection; change recording; in-order asynchronous remote copying; out-of-order asynchronous remote copying; and synchronous remote copying.

15. The computer program product according to claim 9 wherein the data protection metadata is indicative of either or both of: at least one continuous data protection operation; and at least one copy service operation.

16. The computer program product according to claim 9 , wherein the write instruction further comprises relevancy metadata indicative of a relevancy of the one or more data protection operations to one or more subsequent write instructions.

17. The computer program product according to claim 9 , wherein the writable entity is either a memory space or an application object.

18. The computer program product according to claim 9 , wherein the write instruction specifies writing information of a first type to a track of the writable entity; wherein a second write instruction specifies writing information of a second type to the track; wherein the information of the first type is more important that the information of the second type; wherein the one or more data protection operations relevant to the write operation comprise continuous data protection of the track to enable retrieval of the information of the first type at multiple points in time; and wherein a data protection operation relevant to the second write instruction comprises asynchronous mirroring of the track to another writable entity.

19. A storage system comprising: a memory unit comprising a write instruction that is associated with a writable entity; wherein the write instruction comprises: a writable entity identifier; and data protection metadata indicative of a relevancy of at least one data protection operation to be applied in relation to the write instruction; and a controller, communicatively coupled to the memory unit and the writable entity to participate in an execution of: a write operation specifying an information entity to be written to the writable entity indicated by the writable entity identifier of the write instruction; and the at least one data protection operation, in response to determining, based on the data protection metadata, the at least one data protection operation is relevant to the write instruction.

20. The storage system according to claim 19 wherein the write instruction comprises relevancy metadata indicative of a relevancy of the data protection metadata to at least one other write instruction that is associated with the writable entity; wherein the memory unit is adapted to store a first write instruction that comprises a default indication and data protection metadata and to a second write instruction that lacks data protection metadata; wherein the first and second write instructions are associated with the writable entity; wherein the controller is adapted to determine a relevancy of at least one data protection operation to be applied in relation to the second write instruction in response to the data protection metadata of the first write instruction; wherein the data protection metadata is indicative of at least one continuous data protection operation; and wherein the data protection metadata is indicative of a relevancy of at least one copy service operation.

21. The method according to claim 1 , comprising: associating a portion of a memory volume with a data protection scheme characterized by high resource consumption; and associating a second portion of the memory volume with a second data protection scheme characterized by less resource consumption than the data protection scheme.

22. The method according to claim 1 , wherein participating in the execution of the relevant data protection operation, if such the relevant data protection operation exists, and wherein not participating in the execution of the relevant data protection operation, if such the relevant data protection operation does not exist, reduces resource consumption associated with data protection within a data storage system to which the write instruction applies.

23. The method of claim 1 , wherein the data protection metadata indicate a plurality of the data protection operation(s) to be applied to the write instruction; and the method comprising participating in an execution of each of the plurality of data protection operation(s) with respect to the write instruction.

24. The method of claim 1 , wherein the data protection metadata are encoded.

25. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the write instruction comprises: a data protection metadata field comprising the data protection metadata; a relevancy metadata field comprising relevancy metadata; and a default indication field comprising a default indicator; wherein determining whether the at least one data protection operation is relevant to the write instruction is based on the data protection metadata; and wherein determining whether the at least one data protection operation is relevant to the at least one other write instruction is based on: the data protection metadata; and either or both of the relevancy metadata and the default indicator.